The ultimate in Ef'ing ruins

Sarcophagus at Afrodisias

Stadium at Afrodisias

Storks nesting next to our hotel rooftop restaurant in Selcuk

Ephesus - view down Curettes Street

Ephesus - Temple of Hadrian

Ephesus - we'll all go together when we go

Library at Epheses

Cooking gozleme (Turkish pancakes)

View of Sirince (8 km from Selcuk)

Remains of the Artemision (temple of Artemis - one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world)

Ef, Ef, Ef, Ef. Ef. Efes eveywhere. Even the beer is Efes Beer. Why Efes ? Efes is the name for Ephesus - Turkey's jewel in the crown. Ephesus is where the Temple of Artemis was - arguably the best of the ancient 7 wonders. It is the town where John lived and died - supposedly with the "Virgin Mary'. For any heathens out there John wrote the 4th book of the New Testament - and the Book of Revelations - I don't think I can explain the Virgin Mary to you. She wrote nothing.).

Ephesus has the vast ruins of the ancient city including the facade of the glorious Library of Celsus (see photo) still remaining and a 24,000 capacity amphitheatre. In this amphitheatre Paul (Note to heathens - he wrote most of the rest of the New Testament) gave a famous lecture to the Ephesians condemning paganism and worship of Artemis. The Ephesians responded by chanting for three hours "Artemis is great"! After a councillor calmed them down they drove Paul out of town !! Boy I love that story.

The Temple of Artemis was burnt down by Herostradus to obtain eternal fame. For years anyone who mentioned his name was put to death ! The photo above shows the one remaining column. But to me the person in front represents the full 7 wonders ("I wonder how she thinks ? I wonder why she does not listen? I wonder why she tells me what to do ...... etc - full list on request).

Meanwhile I am having a cool drink on the Stork's Nest rooftop restaurant of the Hotel Bella - watching a stork feed its babies in its huge nest some twenty feet away but at the same level. Behind is the remains of the mammoth basilica to St John (who is buried beneath).

Ephesus is just near Selcuk (pronounced Sell-chook) on the west coast of Turkey - lapped by the Aegean sea.

Selcuk is rather greedy it claims St John and Mary are buried here and it has the Tomb of St Luke also. Historians would say there is no evidence that Mary lived here but every year a million gullible souls pay $10 plus to visit the house that was found after a 19th century vision by a menopausal nun. Il Papa 'authenticated' it in 1967 !!! I think every major town should be declared a site of a burial of one of the Apostles. In fact I hereby authenticate Ardrie Park East Malvern as the burial place of Moses who died shortly after he split Bass Strait with a wattle and led the Taswegians to the promised land (Eden - where the apples are). I have the wattle to prove it. As various gullible Ardrie Park tennis ladies still believe in John Howard and Peter Costello, they should have no trouble swallowing my story.

Finally the Gozleme restaurant near the miracle of the "seven sleepers" (don't even ask) was great. Three old grannies making gozleme (savoury pancakes) on the spot and cooking them over an open fire (see photo). Not to be missed.

Yesterday we were inland seeing another large ruined ancient city - Afrodisias. Its most interesting feature was a large well preserved stadium (hippodrome) for presumably chariot racing and other events. Shades of Ben Hur.